LIVE: Warpaint – 24/10/2010

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – It’s not quite Halloween yet, but that’s not stopping the lighting crew at the Deaf Institute from making the stage look like London Fog, Jack the Ripper era. Warpaint casually take the stage engulfed by dry ice and sombre green ‘mood’ lighting, prompting singer Emily Kokal to rightfully ask […]
– ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC, MANCHESTER – ‘Silent Sigh’ is one of the most beautiful songs written in the last 20 years and I am giddy with excitement as Damon Gough, AKA Badly Drawn Boy, sits down at the piano to play those first celestial notes. The mood is tempered, somewhat, by the fact […]

LIVE: BADLY DRAWN BOY – 21/10/2010

LIVE: YEASAYER – 20/10/2010

– ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER – How can you tell if a band is on the edge of commercial success? Have they been invited back to Later with Jools Holland? Check. Has BBC 6 Music played one or more of their songs to the point of exhaustion? Check. Has Drowned in Sound gone cold on them […]
– ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER – Signed to the Frenchkiss record label and with their album ‘Wild Smile’ on release, Suckers have managed to join the pool of New York art pop bands that are currently enjoying much attention. Renowned for their psychedelic pop skirmishes, animated sounds and eccentric audibles, they have gained a reputation for […]

LIVE: SUCKERS – 20/10/2010

LIVE: MELT BANANA/THE EX – 20/10/2010

– ISLINGTON MILL, SALFORD – Tonight’s bill boasts a fine selection of avant-garde rock acts which has enticed a suitably weird and wonderful crowd to Islington Mill this evening. Underground multi-media act Jackdaw With Crowbar kick proceedings off. This current incarnation sees the band performing as a three piece, featuring dual vocalists and a heavily […]
– THE DANCEHOUSE THEATRE, MANCHESTER – Inside the Art Deco interiors of the surreptitiously situated Dancehouse Theatre, something pretty odd is happening. Onstage Alabaster Deplume appears to be having some sort of nervous breakdown/aneurism/? Having moved from a paranoid blaze of gentle strumming on his acoustic guitar, to an old fashioned typewriter where he repeats […]

LIVE: DEBT AT THE DANCEHOUSE – 16/10/2010

LIVE: THE JIM JONES REVUE – 15/10/2010

– SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER – Tonight is my first ever gig at Manchester’s Sound Control and as I walk through the door I can hear via the piped PA from upstairs that JJR have just started their first song. As I hurriedly make my way to the stairs, the sound from the ground level bar […]
– VARIOUS VENUES, MANCHESTER – Day two of the marathon that is In The City 2010 kicks off with, well, a pint. Technical gremlins have descended on erstwhile Oldham St. shithole, Gullivers, pushing Fiction‘s eagerly anticipated set well back, and leaving the Good Ship CityLifers stranded with a pint of Guinness. Egad, the misery of […]

LIVE: IN THE CITY 2010 – DAY TWO – 15/10/2010

LIVE: HOMECUT – 13/10/2010

– CLUB ACADEMY, MANCHESTER – In the depths of the basement at The University of Manchester’s Union, a night called Biko Live rumbles and shakes. Previously having held the phenomenal Melodica, Melody & Me, Indian Bangra dancers, a clothes swap shop, it continues to house things fantastic and eclectic – this time it includes various […]
– VARIOUS VENUES, MANCHESTER – The early knockings of In The City are usually underwhelming, mostly empty affairs, so it’s great to see Common so packed for the opening band of this year’s festivities, Advances In Mathematics, that if you squeezed a few extra delegates into the room everyone would be vaporised under the sheer […]

LIVE: IN THE CITY 2010 – DAY ONE – 14/10/2010